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(OR27-07-26) Policy and Systems-Level Drivers of SNAP Participant Experiences When Applying and Recertifying During COVID-19: A Qualitative Study

Tuesday, July 28, 2026
11:12 AM - 11:24 AM ET
Location: National Harbor 4-5

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Elise Sheinberg, MPH, RDN

    PhD student
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Somerville, Massachusetts, United States

    Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Co-Author(s)

  • CA

    Cerra Antonacci

    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States

  • ML

    Melissa N. Laska

    University of Minnesota School of Public Health, United States

  • Cindy W. Leung, ScD, MPH (she/her/hers)

    Associate Professor of Public Health Nutrition
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • AU

    Alessandra Uriarte

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States

  • CW

    Christine M. Weston

    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States

  • JW

    Julia A. Wolfson

    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States

Disclosure(s):
Elise Sheinberg, MPH, RDN: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, adoption of policy waivers for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) varied across states. This, along with different state administrative processes, created heterogeneous individual experiences during SNAP application and recertification. The objective of this study is to explore how policy choices and state SNAP agency systems contributed to different participant experiences during the pandemic.

Methods: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 62 participants recruited from a national survey of SNAP participants from October – December 2024, focusing on experiences with application and recertification during COVID-19. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify how policy and systems factors influenced participant burden.

Results: Three themes were identified. First, national policy waivers targeted persistent barriers to SNAP participation by extending recertification and reducing interview requirements. Second, variation in both state waiver adoption and state systems capacity led to different levels of application and recertification burden for SNAP participants. User-friendly technology, simplified lower documentation requirements, and paused interviews reduced participant burden in states with high waiver adoption. Onerous documentation requirements, ongoing interviews, and staff or participant errors that led to loss of SNAP increased participant burden in states with limited waiver adoption. Finally, caseworker capacity shaped participant experiences. Some participants were unable to contact caseworkers or faced long wait times, while others received timely assistance.

Conclusions: Federal policies and state-level waiver adoption and administrative systems shaped individual SNAP experiences and burdens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences in policy adoption by states should be monitored to ensure equitable access to SNAP. Participant experiences should be centered when designing and implementing SNAP policies.

Funding Sources: Research supported by the National Institute on Nursing.